Tulsa ranked No. 84 in the nation after the 2009 season in total defense, allowing 397.2 yards per game.

That won't win any championships, and the Golden Hurricane think they should be competing for Conference USA titles, even if it wasn't even a bowl-eligible team a season ago.

So there was little surprise then that signing day had a focus on defense, but even the most defensive-minded Tulsa fan had to be taken back a little by just how committed the team was to shoring up that side of the ball.

Tulsa head coach Todd Graham landed 18 defensive recruits in a class of 22 signees. That doesn't even include four players who were already enrolled in December, three of which play defense.

"We had seven key players graduate from our defense, so our big focus of this class was solidifying our front, and we feel strongly about the three JC players that we've brought in and the addition of Tulsa Union's Alec Henry," said Graham. "We also wanted to solidify depth a linebacker and we felt we did that, but the biggest area of concern was our defensive backfield.